


Trigger

by dormiensa



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Missing Scene, Post Reichenbach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-01
Updated: 2013-05-01
Packaged: 2017-12-10 01:44:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/780336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dormiensa/pseuds/dormiensa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before setting out to begin his quest of dismantling Moriarty's network, Sherlock receives encouragement from unexpected quarters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trigger

Most people underestimated her.

****

Because she was seen constantly texting on her phone, most people assumed that she was unobservant, oblivious to her surroundings.  Well, of course she wasn’t.  A man as astute and as devil-is-in-the-details as Mycroft Holmes would never tolerate a careless, obtuse PA, even if she occasionally had to play the part of one, even to him.  It was a front, naturally.  A facade to deflect the fact that not only was she hawk-eyed in her ability to observe, she was terribly efficient.  

****

Others on Mr. Holmes’ staff were only too aware of her abilities.  A few high-profile associates had also become intimately, painfully acquainted with just how formidable the petite brunette could be.  The pompous Indonesian Ambassador, for example.  After one too many drinks, he’d foolishly tried to brow-beat Mr. Holmes into ceding more concessions than had been agreed upon in the recent trade agreements.  The following morning, he’d been recalled home in disgrace when he made headlines in every major newspaper in his native country for failure to disclose to his government a venereal disease that he’d contracted from one of the many brothels he frequented.

****

And here she was, knocking on the door of Molly Hooper’s apartment.  How she got past security was anyone’s guess.  

****

When the door finally opened, the look on Sherlock Holmes’ face did not show any sign of surprise.  More astoundingly, though, it also did not show any of the contempt that usually graced his features when confronted with one of his brother’s minions.  

****

After the door was firmly shut behind “Anthea”, she sat herself down and opened the ordinary-looking briefcase she’d been carrying on the coffee table. With both hands, she removed a toy sword and presented it to him.  It wasn’t any cheap-plastic or homemade, cardboard-wrapped-in-tinfoil sword.  Though with obviously a blunted blade, the sword was made to resemble a proper, miniature cutlass.  A pirate’s sword.  

****

Nothing but the best for a Holmes.  

****

Sherlock stared at it for a long time before accepting and unsheathing it.  He had not seen it in _years_.

****

“Mr. Holmes once mentioned that you’d wanted to become a pirate,” she answered before he posed the question.  She then closed the briefcase and let herself out of the apartment, having completed her task.

****

Sherlock sat for twenty minutes contemplating the sword.  Finally, he re-sheathed it and straightened his posture.  He placed the sword in a backpack by the door, secured an envelope addressed to Molly on her fridge so that her cat could not displace it, and walked out of the apartment, closing the door securely behind him.

****

The following day, as “Anthea” waited by the open car-door for Mr. Holmes to slip into the back seat, she was discreetly handed a folded piece of paper from a passerby with several weeks’ worth of tangled beard and unkempt clothes.  

****

When it was safe for her to read it, the note simply said:

****

_Keep him safe while I’m off hunting.  SH_

****  
  


**Author's Note:**

> _my little bit of head-canon as to why sherlock wanted to be a pirate._


End file.
